Homecoming
When politicians get involved in the promotion of spirituality, then what we get is a comedy! But will it end in a tragedy? Today traditional Hindu values spanning several millennia are under attack from politicians who have always been closer to the bottom in our spiritual hierarchy but who have now usurped the role of our mystics and masters. When our spiritual and enlightened mystics and masters have spoken of homecoming, it is not in reference to a community or culture or country. They are speaking about or more accurately attempting to speak of nirvana or moksha or enlightenment or whatever name you choose to give it - Ultimate Reality - which is beyond mind and is always problematic as it invalidates logic and language. It is a matter of knowing, not thinking. The enlightened, if they want to tell others have no other way but to try to explain in words what happened to them knowing fully well they are going to fail and be misunderstood as ultimate reality is inexpressible! India is an old culture with several spiritual paths including the Vedas, Dhammapada, Jainism, Tantrism, the materialism of the Charvarkas, Sikhism, and a lot more. It is also a country of multitudinous languages, and traditions. If one language or religion or culture or one section of society in the twenty-first century is promoted at the cost of another, the country might go the way of the former Soviet Union. We who love India and its diversity do not wish it, and can only hope there will be all round respect for various modes of thought, culture and languages as has been our tradition for thousands of years. As Hindus say, "God is one." Hindu traditional spiritual paths are several and include belief and non-belief! It is not a religion and so Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions are absorbed easily without a problem. That is why Hindus accept Jesus, Mahomet, Abraham, and other messiahs, saviors, and saints of all other religions. It is not a problem for Hindus because Hindu spirituality accepts several paths to Ultimate Reality. Other religions are religions; the millennia-old Hindu approach is not! It is several spiritual paths to Ultimate Reality! Can other religions accept Krishna or Ram as their savior or their saint? The non-belief spiritual path of the Hindu approach to Ultimate Reality is meditation which is not a belief system and which in a way is a path similar to Buddhism. The Buddhist follow the path of the historical Buddha but even for Buddhists the historical man is secondary as what is important is enlightenment. If someone is able to prove that Gautama Buddha never lived nothing would change as it is not about the historical man but enlightenment. For the Hindu, the so-called Buddhist way is really one of the Hindu paths except for the caste system. At the time when Gautama was alive there were others, Jains and Hindus who reached enlightenment. All, however, ceased to be members of their communities when they became enlightened for enlightenment means to disappear, and when there is no one, the question of community or country or culture or passport does not arise! That is the teaching of our mystics and masters. There is no belief in God or disbelief for practitioners of meditation on this path of Hindu spirituality. It is, I will add without delay, also not a path of atheism or agnosticism, and this might be difficult for Westerners to understand as meditation is not a part of Western spiritual tradition. Meditation, it should be emphasized, is not contemplation as is usually misunderstood in the West - it is the cessation of thinking - even about God! This spiritual approach does not believe in belief! It is a path of knowing, not believing. A spiritually realized soul who has followed this path and arrived at what Hindus call the flowering of the one thousand petalled lotus does not say he believes or disbelieves in God. He says, "I know God" or "I am God" and that is what our enlightened masters have been saying for millennia. A Westerner or follower of belief systems will get shocked and call this blasphemy. There have been through the ages people who claim to know when they don't! In our own lifetime we have come across several! In case anyone is wondering, please note - I don't know! Thank you. appeared today in The Goan
